The Mineralogy of the Martian Surface: Results from the MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer

Details The Mineralogy of the Martian Surface: Results from the MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer The Mineralogy of the Martian Surface: Results from the MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p41a..05c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P41A-05

Mathematics

Logic

3672 Planetary Mineralogy And Petrology (5410), 5410 Composition, 5464 Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

The mineralogy of Mars has been mapped globally by the MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument at a resolution of \sim5 km. These data show that dust-free surfaces are composed of mafic to intermediate volcanic rock types. The mineralogy of these rocks is dominated by plagioclase feldspar and clinopyroxene with minor olivine in the ancient, southern-hemisphere cratered highlands, and by plagioclase feldspar and volcanic glass and/or sheet silicates in the younger northern plains. There is no evidence for large-scale (10's km), moderate-grained (>50 †m) deposits of carbonates in areal abundances of >15-20% currently exposed at the surface. Weathering products such as clays are not present in the southern hemisphere above a detection limit of approximately 10%. This lack of evidence for significant chemical weathering of major portions of the martian surface indicates a geologic history dominated by a cold, dry climate in which mechanical, rather than chemical, weathering was the dominant form of erosion and sediment production. Unique deposits of gray, crystalline hematite indicate the occurrence of aqueous mineralization in very limited regions under ambient or hydrothermal conditions. The occurrence of water-related mineralization in these in-place sedimentary rock formations suggests that liquid water was stable near the surface for a long period of time at these locales.

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